Huskies ready to face old coach, new-styled Cougars

Washington State’s Klay Thompson has upped his scoring average by taking the ball to the basket more. (Dean Hare/AP)

Saturday is Round 2 of remember when.

Former Washington assistant Ken Bone rolls into Bank of America Arena in his first year as the head man at Washington State. Bone and the Cougars will hope to fare better than Lorenzo Romar offshoot Cameron Dollar did when he returned to Hec Ed earlier in the week.

But Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. tip-off won’t be that new to Bone. He faced Washington three times while the head coach at Portland State. All three games were in Bank of America Arena and Washington wins.

This, however, is different. Bone now runs things for the Huskies’ biggest rival and both teams have been treading water in the zany Pac-10 following strong nonconference play.

The Cougars arrive with a 4-4 record in conference. Washington sits at the bottom of the league at 3-5, 2 1/2 games behind conference leader Cal. If the Huskies are going to use Saturday as a step toward again being part of the Pac-10 race, they will have to slow the Cougars.

That’s right, slow down Washington State. Bone brought his open-ended offense with him to the Palouse, changing the Cougars’ playing style from tortoise to Usain Bolt.

“(His) preference to play up-tempo,” Romar said. “His players play with a lot of freedom.”

It wasn’t a hard sell to the players. Bone joked back in December it didn’t take much convincing when telling his new charges they should run more and put up more 3-pointers. He also convinced Klay Thompson to head to the basket more often.

The sophomore finished 2009 with 31 free throw attempts on the season. Serious. Thirty-one in 30 games. This year, Thompson has gone to the line 133 times. The play in traffic has pushed his 22.3 points per game into a tie at the top of the Pac-10 in scoring.

Washington will counter him with senior Quincy Pondexter, whom Romar said on Friday deserves definite consideration for Pac-10 player of the year. Pondexter reminisced about practice preparations for Washington State the previous three seasons.

“It’s going to be completely different from the regular Coug preparation,” Pondexter said. “I remember back in the day when they had Tony Bennett, in practice we would just slow everything down so much and go through the whole 35-second shot clock on both ends of the floor. This game is going to be a little different.”

Washington is the top scoring team in the conference and Washington State is third. Complimenting Thompson and Pondexter are Reggie Moore and Isaiah Thomas, respectively. The latter is coming off the flu which caused him to miss Tuesday’s game against Seattle U. Thomas practiced Thursday and Friday, but had not eaten in three days. He wasn’t sure where the flu came from — though he jokingly suggested Venoy Overton sabotaged a Gatorade bottle he gave Thomas last week — and says he’ll be fine for Saturday.

As for Moore, a former Rainier Beach star, he came to the Cougars as a secondary option. Recruiting services listed him second to Abdul Gaddy among Washington state point guards. Moore was even viewed as the secondary point guard for the Cougars upon arrival, backing up Xavier Thames.

Now, the freshman is the team’s second-leading scorer at 14.4 points per game and about to get his first taste of the rivalry as the Cougars primary ball-handler.

It will be the seventh go-around against the Cougars for Pondexter, who sums up the rivalry thusly:

“I like how our fans are more the classy ones while the Coug fans will tell you whatever is on their mind,” Pondexter said with a smile.